A/N: Tumblr prompt fills about Mary I of England, for Avani ( avani008) and Elizabeth ( fandomsruinedmylifebut).

Three ways Mary never died and one life she never lived

The infant Princess Mary tumbles down a flight of stairs and slams her head against the flagstones in March 1518. It is just after she had turned two years old, just after she had run after a lutist calling "Priest! Priest!" and begging him to play for her, just after her mother had announced her seventh pregnancy and visited Merton College in Oxford in celebration. Queen Katherine makes a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Frideswide, still in black mourning, and develops pressure sores on her knees from begging God to send her a healthy son.

She miscarries what will turn out to be her final child.

When her lady-in-waiting, with French in her voice and reform books in her hands, sweeps away the King of England, Katherine goes without so much as a murmur.

Mary Tudor has inherited both of her parents' obstinacy, and even being sent to Hatfield to muck out the new princess's chamberpots will not tame her fierce Spanish blood. She falls desperately ill in 1534, and her father refuses to even visit her, snapping that he has no greater enemy in the world than her. Some fool overhears it and gets it into his head to do the King of England a favor. How can he execute his own eldest daughter, the cousin of Spanish kings? And yet how can such a vile traitor be allowed to live? So he takes on the noble duty of smothering Mary with a pillow.

She is weak with illness when he steals into her sickroom, unable to resist or even scream. Come morning, she is almost mistaken to have died of her disease, but no illness claims its victim in the midst of night with nary a struggle - no vomiting, no screams were overheard by the physician. Her lifeless eyes are red, with burst blood vessels, and pillow feathers are still tangled in her hair. Bruises around her wrist indicate she was held down, and the most damning evidence comes from the varlet himself, who is foolish enough to bemoan - or brag - to others about the enormous service he has rendered the King of England.

He is hanged, drawn, and quartered of course, but the damage is done. Anne Boleyn is murdered on suspicion of being behind it and Katherine of Aragon dies of a broken heart. Henry marries Jane Seymour and gets his boy, but the damage to his heart and to England's reputation is forever done.

While in confinement for her supposed child in 1555, the Queen goes into what she believes to be labor, but really turns out to be a heart attack. The postmortem examination of her body will reveal she never was pregnant, confirming the suspicions of those who whispered the pregnancy would end in wind.

It changes nothing, other than Elizabeth becomes queen a little earlier, and Mary dies with a smile upon her lips.

She is nine years old, ready to go to Ludlow soon, and ready to sweep into an elegant curtsey for Mother's visit.

But Mother drops into an enormous curtsey first, and Cardinal Wolsey booms out, "God save Queen Mary!"

Later she will hear of Edmund Moody and drowning in mud and pathetic grooms who did nothing, but for now, she only knows that she will never curtsey to anybody again

Three gifts Mary gave and one she received

She gives a tunic to her governess Lady Salisbury bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, at age nine or so, that she sewed herself. As far as Mary knows, it gets lost in the hustle and bustle of moving around from manor to manor in the intervening years. Fifteen years later, it is somehow found, and Cromwell uses it to attaint her governess, accusing her of supporting the Pope and her traitorous son the cardinal Reginald. Lady Salisbury - or Mistress Pole, as she is now known - is sent to the Tower to languish for two years, until she is unceremoniously dragged to have her head hacked into a dozen pieces

Whispers abound that it is fabricated evidence, having not been produced until six months after her arrest, but Mary knows better, however.

Elizabeth receives a pomander ball with a clock set in it one Christmas from her elder sister. Mary knows Bessie has a love of fashion (something she inherited from her mother), and she knows such ornaments are in style now. The ball had also once belonged to the previous Queen Katherine, or cousin Kitty as Elizabeth knew her. Bessie immediately loves it, and often wears it about her waist.

She composes a translation of Erasmus's Paraphrases upon the New Testament from Latin into English, for the benefit of Queen Katherine Parr. She suspects the Queen's reformist leanings, including her desire to share the Bible in English, which can only sow discord and misunderstanding among God's faithful. But sharing the musings of a truly Catholic man with the public can do no harm. Upon becoming king, Edward orders that copies of her translation be made available in every parish in England. Even when his childish adoration for her fades from his eyes and he can criticize her faith so cruelly she weeps, he still sends her yearly letters asking if she would like to refine her translation and pledging to fund the replacement of the manuscripts from his own pocket.

Her father gives her a copy of his book Assortio Septem Sacramentorum, the book he wrote against Luther and won him the title of Defender of the Faith. She is young when she receives it, not even of the age of reason, and she needs Dr. Featherstone's help in decoding more than half of the pamphlet. Not until she is in her teens can she fully understand all the arguments made within, and by then the King has renounced the Catholic Church.

Long after her father accuses Thomas More of writing the book and the Pope rescinds the honor, she still has the tome, thumbing through the curling, ink-smudged pages anew.

A/N: The "Priest, priest!" incident is taken from history. The last one also refers to an incident in 1525 when a groom named Edmund Moody saved Henry VIII from drowning in a puddle of mud, and is based on Blurgle's AU "The Girl Queen" where Moody fails to do so.

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was attainted partially on the basis of a tunic bearing a symbol of Catholicism, which was most likely fabricated evidence. It being Mary's gift to her is my speculation though. The pomander clock is also an actual gift Mary gave to Elizabeth, as is her translation to Katherine Parr. One of Edward VI's first acts upon ascension was to order copies of Erasmus's Paraphrases made available all over England.